I was raised in the 1950’s. Our neighbor lady was diagnosed with
breast cancer when I was about 8, and the talks of her bilateral
mastectomy were in hushed tones. She had a bilateral mastectomy because
that’s what they did back then, and her scar ran horizontally across
her entire chest. It was scary to me as a small child although
I didn’t understand any of it; but I knew that the neighbor lady’s huge
scar was something that fed young children’s nightmares---and no doubt,
it fed her nightmares too.
The neighbor lady went on to live a
long life with that horrible, unsightly scar and she never faced breast
cancer again. And medical science has advanced measurably since then.
No one speaks of breast cancer in whispers anymore and just about
everyone is a breast cancer advocate today. Now we have lumpectomies
and sentinel node testing. We do testing to see if we carry a
particular gene.
So now it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2013.
And why, despite all the money spent on breast cancer awareness and
breast cancer research, aren’t we making more progress in the war
against breast cancer? Why? Ask yourself. Ask your neighbor. Ask
your doctor. Tell him to ask his pharma company? Ask your representative.
Why?
